About 2-3 months ago I had planned on shutting down this blog (which I did by not posting on it), and perhaps even deleting the contents. Two things kept me from doing the second - I hate it when I lose data (because it's really annoying and it screws up figuring out what happened in the past), and I kept using the PTCs now and then, though mainly NeoBux. I've been doing a lot of thinking about a lot of stuff lately, and I also got a job about a month back. Getting a job (at Subway) changed my perspective on the scale of things. Getting a $100 check after a week is a lot different than, say, putting in 1 year at bux.to (I know, I know, that's a tad unfair to PTCs) and getting $10.
So I've rethought PTCs, why we do them, why advertisers do them, and it seems kind of weird to me how the two approaches are almost mutually exclusive. There are the PTCers (you and I, if you're doing PTCs) who are after money primarily, and then there are the advertisers, who are looking to get their content promoted. The main appeal of this approach - PTC - is that it seems easy for both sides. The advertisers can pay for their ad to be seen by ad clickers (the workers), and the PTCers can click through the ads like workers. It's win-win for both sides, with minimal effort.
Or is it?
One thing that I noticed about new start-ups, such as
DollarClickOrSignUp, is that the site starts with a high-pay -- $0.02 or $0.01 -- and then over time, that amount slowly declines, until it's at about $0.005 for all of the ads, instead of the few at the end. And now it's at $0.005 in the front and $0.0025 for the rest of the pages. It's at this point that it's, at least for me, "no longer worth it," which is the point of this blog - 'a search for decent PTCs.'
There are a few questions that I've come to about this, because if this isn't working, and it hasn't been working for a long time, why the hell is it taking so long for it to work? This being internet-based and all, it would make, perhaps, more sense for there to be a quick adjustment. Here, then, are what I think are the essential questions to ask:
1. Why are you PTCing?
2. Why are advertisers using PTCs as a means of advertising?
3. Is there a gap between PTC users and PTC advertisers - is there an expectation on one side that is impossible to meet?
Imagine that you're an advertiser, and you want your stuff to be seen. Are you going to want the casual PTC user to just combine your ad with a whole bunch of other sites?* No, you're going to want that user to actually
look at the friggin' ad. Why the hell are you paying him if he or she isn't going to
look?!
And so you adjust your prices to pay him/her accordingly...
*(This is a technique used to get the maximum amount of money for a minimum amount of work, and it usually involves tabs and keeping PTC sites in a favorites folder)
The majority of people who are coming to this blog would be PTCers like myself - there's not really a need to say, "Imagine that you're a PTCer." Instead, there's the question - why are you PTCing? The answer tends to fall along the lines of "easy money", with serious PTCers ... kind of online addicts. (Ahem... me.) I have been looking for a way to make money online, partially because I didn't want to get "a real job". That's one reason out of a vast majority of reasons, of why various people PTC. However, if the most common reason, why the vast majority of people PTC can be answered, then a revision of PTCs can be made.
The big problem with the disconnect between PTCers and advertisers is pretty much that PTCers want to have their cake and eat it too. This has been referred to as "there is no such thing as a free lunch." This is a touchy subject for me. But it needs to be dealt with.
One solution to the problem of people not paying attention to ads was suggested to me by a site that utilized it - the site only counted down when you were looking at it. Possibly, the reason why it didn't stick around was
that it didn't address the basic want, so people stopped using it. Or was it Palmbux? I forget. However, before we get to solutions, it would be a good idea to address the basic philosophy this is all built on. After this has been done, PTCs, or perhaps the user, or perhaps the advertiser -- or perhaps all three, can be improved and innovated.
